Ontario Court of Appeal Dates Chosen for R. v. Mernagh Case

By
Cannabis Culture
on August 14, 2011

CANNABIS CULTURE – Ontario Court of Appeal court dates have been chosen for R. v. Mernagh: the court ruling gutting Canada’s federal medical marijuana program and personal possession and cultivation laws is set to be heard March 5 and 6, 2012.

A small team of talented lawyers will descend on Osgoode Hall for two days to argue before three judges. Earlier this summer federal prosecutors won a reprieve on a 90 day marijuana legalization deadline. In exchange for a legal time, prosecutors were ordered to have their case ready by mid-November. Team Mernagh was given an option to chose the dates. These are their best dates.

Paul Lewin will represent Matthew Mernagh. Several interveners have called expressing interest in becoming positively involved. These community driven agencies will be sending lawyers who will seek to address the court as third parties. Given the scope of R. v. Mernagh having more than one lawyer working the appeal judges is important.

Should medicinal marijuana patient Matt Mernagh be allowed to grow his own cannabis without a Health Canada license? Mernagh argues he is unable to get his doctor to sign a Health Canada med pot application – allowing him to grow his own. Ontario Superior court judge D.J. Taliano concluded less than one half of a one percent of Canadian doctors have signed applications. Prosecutors argue the problem is not with the federal program, but with doctor’s.

Mernagh retorts federal government has tasked doctors as gatekeepers to a program they have had no input on. Canadian Medical Association has written Health Canada expressing concerns that have gone un-answered.

Justice Taliano ruled medicinal marijuana is not treatment of last resort. Canadians should not have to try a slew of pharmaceutical medications before choosing plant therapy. To cope with doctor unwillingness he suggests alternative therapy practitioners be allowed to sign Health Canada’s application. With no federal legal medical marijuana program accessible to sick Canadians, he determined Canada’s marijuana laws for personal cultivation and possession un-constitutional. Mernagh’s marijuana grow charge was squashed. He was granted an exemption from federal marijuana laws. Allowing him to grow marijuana legally.